Bedding for animals is generally known in the art. Animal owners or caretakers, including farmers and/or zoo keepers, use various materials for animal bedding. For example, animal owners or caretakers often utilize natural materials, for example straw and/or sand, as bedding material for animals. However, using natural materials as animal bedding material has certain drawbacks. Natural materials have a tendency to retain excreted animal waste, including solid waste (e.g. manure or feces) and liquid waste (e.g. urine or milk). As such, the animal owners or caretakers are required to routinely remove and replace the natural bedding materials to maintain animal hygiene. In addition, animals will move and/or rearrange natural bedding material. Thus it is necessary for the animal owner or caretaker to routinely, or even daily, groom the natural bedding material in order to provide a supportive and comfortable bed for the animals. This results in the animal owners or caretakers incurring additional costs associated with the removal, replacement, and routine grooming of natural bedding materials, including the costs for labor and replacement materials.
Other material has been introduced and utilized as bedding material for animals, including flexible rubber matting, and bladder type mattresses filled with air, water, padding, or other materials. However, some of these other materials and associated products used as animal bedding have certain disadvantages.
For example, animal mattresses filled with filler materials, such as flaked rubber or foam, are typically very heavy, and are difficult to move into position. These mattresses require large amounts of manpower or machinery to position the mattresses for use. Further, these mattresses typically structurally deteriorate with use. The mattresses and associated filler materials typically begin to deform by, for example, retaining the shape of the animal. This results in the mattresses becoming less supportive of the animal, losing any cushioning effect.
In addition, certain single bladder type mattresses, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,077 to Bristow, can cause injuries to many animals. The fluid pressure necessary to support larger animals in these single bladder type mattresses can lead to surface instability, adversely affecting the footing of the animal during the process of lying down or standing up on the single bladder type mattress. The surface instability can cause the animal to become unsteady, fall, and/or roll over, which can lead to injury to the animal.
Further, certain animals may be discouraged from using certain single bladder type mattresses due to surface instability. Certain animals that may use a single bladder type mattress are inherently unstable. These animals may refuse to use mattresses having surface instability, as the animals will lose confidence in their respective ability to walk on the unstable mattress.
In addition, single bladder type mattresses are limited to only a single amount of support material provided therein. Single bladder type mattresses cannot be tailored to have different quantities, amounts, or volumes of support material to provide different levels of support in different areas of an animal. For example, a single bladder type mattress is unable to provide one level of support for the head area of an animal and a second level of support, different than the first level, for the body area of the animal.
Flexible rubber matting, filled mattresses, and single bladder type mattresses referenced above have additional limitations. As illustrated in the '077 patent to Bristow, the edge of the mattress closest to the gutter area (i.e. the end of the mattress closest to the rear of the animal) is squared off. This right angle can cause abrasions and injury to an animal's legs and underbelly due to the sharp edge.